The invention relates to a method for affixing strip labels to container closures wherein the glue-coated strip label, held extended and at right angles to the axis of the container above its top, is pressed by its portions which overhang the top of the container onto the opposed sides of the container.
The invention further relates to an apparatus for affixing strip labels to container closures, and in particular to bottle closures, which comprises a transfer mechanism for the strip labels and applicator means adapted to advance toward two opposed sides of the container to be strip-labeled and to press the strip label onto the container.
A strip label so affixed serves to seal the closure of the container. The container then cannot be opened without the strip label being destroyed. By checking the label for damage, the consumer can tell whether the container filled by the original vendor has been tampered with. Moreover, the strip label can be a revenue stamp. In many countries, bottles filled with alcoholic beverages are required to be sealed with such revenue stamps.
Apparatuses for affixing strip labels to bottle closures have long been known. In one of these prior-art apparatuses (German Pat. No. 224,143), a glue-coated label is moved by a transfer mechanism at right angles to the axis of the bottle to a point above the bottle and transferred to holding means. By means of an applicator which can be axially advanced toward the top of the bottle, the label so held in position is then pressed against the top of the bottle and affixed thereto while being released by the holding means. The portions of the label overhanging both sides of the top are then pressed against the neck of the bottle by applicators operating in the manner of tongs. In the process, these overhanging portions may shift sideways, with the result that they are not adhered straight. Now labels which are askew detract from the desired pleasing appearance of the bottle.
Even in modern apparatuses the overhanging label portions are applied without being guided, either by means of applicators operating in the manner of tongs (U.S. Pat. No. 3,049,166 and German Patent Application DAS No. 1,297,530) or through affixing means (U.S. Pat. No. 3,663,336 and German Patent Application DOS No. 2,055,417).
In another prior-art apparatus for affixing strip labels (British Pat. No. 730,408), the strip label is held in the middle by a plunger and at the ends of gripping blocks by suction. The strip label is applied to the top of the bottle by axially advancing the latter toward the plunger, which is resiliently mounted in a head also carrying the gripping block. As the bottle continues to advance toward the plunger, the latter retracts into the head. In the process, the label is stripped from the gripping block, and the ends of the strip label therefore are no longer held. Applicators provided in the gripper head are radially advanced over oblique surfaces and press the free label ends against the bottle. In this apparatus, too, the ends of the label, initially held by the gripping blocks, are applied to the sides of the bottle head unguided.